Electrostatic eliminator



July '17, 1934. KLE|N ELECTROSTATIC ELIMINATOR Filed June is, 1952 INVENTORI Praia rack/la,

BY H IS ATTORNEY Patented July 17, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTROSTATIC ELIMINATOR Frederick Klein, College Point, N. Y., assignor to Sipp-Eastwood Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application June 18, 1932, Serial No. 618,019

4 Claims. (Cl. 175-264) It is known that in the operation of warping silk Fig. l is a section on line 1 -1, Fig. 2, of my apand certain other fibers the rubbing of the strands paratus; of the warp against parts of the warping appara- Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; tus sets up static electricity in the warp, which Fig. 3 a plan of the supporting yoke or bracket;

makes the same difficult to control. This invenand 0 tion contemplates apparatus for neutralizing Fig. 4 illustrates a modification diagrammatistatic electricity developed in moving a warp, or cally. in fact other sheets or webs or other lengths that The yoke or bracket 1 is fork-shaped, the ends would cause trouble when charged with static of its arms being T-shaped heads la in parallel electricity, in contact with any part or parts planes. The ends of these heads are connected 5 which produce such electricity therein and to acby parallel collectors in the form of rods 2, 3 each complish that object by simpler means than those having a row of suitably spaced teeth or points 2a, heretofore proposed, such as for providing for 3a and each penetrating the two heads andserendering electrically conductive the air surcured therein, in some position to which it is 1'0- rounding the material by ionization with ultraviotatively adjustable, by set-screws 4. Each head 7 let waves, or by X-rays or by blasts of ionized air, has an upright lb. or the use of electrodes forming the terminals of A shaft 5 is arranged in bushings 6 and 7 in a high-frequency current, or by the use of colsaid portions 1b parallel with the rods, the one (6) lectors interconnected through electrical conof which may be split to clamp and hold the shaft densers. against rotation under pressure of a set-screw 8 7 I have found that if an element is provided with tapped into one of said portions and the other of which the material has superficial contact and of which may be screwed into the other such portion course adapted to be charged electrically oppoand there held by a set-screw 9. sitely thereto and is movable to cause shifting of On ball bearings 10 on the shaft is freely revthe contact over its surface progressively (by oluble by the moving sheet A (as of warp 80 which I specifically mean so that a portion of its threads) a roller 11. This roller comprises a surface at any time subject to such contact is at dielecetric shell 11a, as of hard rubber, and two a later time not subject thereto) and there is end heads 11b which receive the ball-bearings. To electro-conductive means to establish electrical prevent dust from admission to the gearings and connection between portions of said material and the escape of oil therefrom the ends of the shell of the surface of said element which have ceased may be closed by felt disks 12. to contact with each other the desired neutraliza- In the present case the sheet A, assumed to aption of the static electricity in the material may be proach the roller in a horizontal plane, then exeffected, and that with obviously very simple aptends downwardly therefrom at an obtuse angle,

35 paratus. so that only a. portion of the rollers surface, cir- 90 In practice I prefer that said element be rocumferentially, is touched by the sheet. The two tative with the material by virtue of the frictional rows of points are arranged so as respectively to contact between them, said element having its project into operative relation to the periphery of surface of some dielectric material, such as rubthe roller and that (here down bent) portion of her; the construction is simplified if said element the sheet which has left the roller in its travel, 95 is rotary, and if it is revoluble with the material or here so that the row 2a projects toward and the latter of course, as in the case of a warp, will close to the roller and the row 3a projects toward not be rubbed thereby. The electro-conductive and close to said part of the sheet; the two rows means may comprise some part of a metal bracket respectively project as close as possible to the or the like in which latter said element, as in the roller and said part of the sheet, but to prevent 1 form of aroller, is journaled and rods in electrical the row 3a from possibly interfering with the contact with the bracket and having teeth or travel of the sheet and catching thereon it may other points projecting one row toward the porbe somewhat further from the sheet than row 2a tion of the surface of the roller, and the other tois from the roller.

ward the portion of the material, which has de- The operation is as follows: The sheet, contain- 105 parted from the contact. It is not broadly essening electricity of one polarity, as plus, imparted tial that said element rotate with the material, or to it in passing in contact with some apparatus in the same relative direction that it progresses, as previous to that of' the invention, sets up by inwill appear. duction electricity of the opposite polarity in the Inthe drawing, periphery of the roller. The electricity of the 119 stated polarity in the sheet and that of the opposite polarity set up in the roller remain therein until that of the sheet reaches the row of points 3a and that of the roller reaches the row of points 2a, whereupon they become neutralized due here to the conductivity of the metal of which, it will be understood, the supporting structure is composed, whereupon that portion, of the downbent part of the sheet which has passed the vicinity of the row 3a and that part of the roller periphery which has passed the vicinity of the row 2a are devoid of electricity, said part of the roller remaining in that state until it is again electrified by the sheet. The sheet is assumed by its frictional engagement with the roller to rotate it in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2, but, whereas the roller should rotate, it is not as stated assential that it do so in the direction indicated; thus, in Fig. 4, where a driving means for the roller is shown, as a belt and pulley drive 13, which rotates the roller reversely to the arrow (whereas the sheet moves in the direction of the arrow applied thereto) the negative electricity induced in the roller by the sheet and the positive electricity of the downbent part of the sheet will become neutralized, the same as in Fig. 3, through the supporting structure, the part of the roller which has passed the row of points 2a and the part of the sheet which has passed the row of points 3a being devoid of electricity.

It is within my invention to neutralize a charge of static electricity existing in a length of flexible material by effecting contact between said material and the surface of a body which is adapted, when said material and body are thereupon separated, to be charged with static electricity of the polarity opposite to that of said charge in the material, and then separating the material and said body progressively of said surface and meanwhile combining the charges in the thus separated portions of the material and said body.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. Apparatus for neutralizing static electricity pre-existing in a moving length of material including an element with which said length has superficial contact and adapted to be charged electrically by said length oppositely thereto and being movable to cause shifting of said contact over the surface of said element progressively, and electro-conductive means to establish electrical connection between portions of said material and the surface of said element which have ceased to contact with each other in the movement of said element.

2. Apparatus for neutralizing static electricity pre-existing in a moving length of material including an element with which said length has superficial contact and adapted to be charged electrically by said length oppositely thereto and being revoluble to cause shifting of said contact over the surface of said element progressively, and electro-conductive means to establish electrical connection between portions of said material and the surface of said element which have ceased to contact with each other in the rotary movement of said element.

3. Apparatus for neutralizing static electricity pre-existing in a moving length of material in cluding an element with which said length has superficial contact and adapted to be charged electrically by said length oppositely thereto and being freely revoluble with the moving length to cause shifting of said contact over the surface of said element progressively, and electroconductive means to establish electrical connection between portions of said material and the surface of said element which have ceased to contact with each other in the rotary movement of said element.

4. The herein described method of neutralizing a charge of static electricity existing in a length of flexible material which consists in effecting contact between said material and the surface of a body which is adapted, when said material and body are thereupon separated, to be charged with static electricity of the polarity opposite to that of said charge in the material, and then separating the material and said body progressively of said surface and meanwhile combining the charges in the thus separated portions of the material and said body.

FREDERICK KLEIN. 

